LSAT 105 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q4

LR Question 4 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Maude is incessantly engaging in diatribes …

QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption

CONCLUSION: Maude is a hypocrite for criticizing materialistic people.

REASONING: She’s very emotionally attached to her grandmother’s watch. She worries about damaging it and carefully puts it in a special box every night.

ANALYSIS: The stimulus contains some difficult words like diatribes and evinced. If you don’t know what they mean, always look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary when you’re reviewing!

While you’re doing the test, use context clues. They’re calling Maude a hypocrite for nagging on materialistic people yet caring about her grandma’s watch.

But why does caring about a watch make Maude a hypocrite? I certainly wouldn’t call you materialistic for caring about a family heirloom.

The argument only works if it assumes that being emotionally attached to an item counts as being materialistic.

Otherwise, Maude could love her grandma’s watch for sentimental reasons and still not be materialistic at all. Then the hypocrisy claim would fall apart.

___________

1. The argument doesn’t compare the watch to Maude’s other possessions. Whether gifts from relatives generally receive special treatment has nothing to do with whether Maude is materialistic for caring about this watch.
   Negation: Items from relatives are not treated better than other items.
2. CORRECT. Without this, caring deeply about one heirloom says nothing about whether Maude is the sort of materialistic person she criticized.
   Negation: Sentimental attachment to a single possession does not indicate being materialistic.
3. The argument only gives us one possession: the watch. Maude could still be materialistic even if she doesn’t carefully protect every single thing she owns.
   Negation: Materialistic people do not tend to take special care of all their possessions.
4. The argument tries to prove hypocrisy based solely on the watch. It never relies on her caring about multiple possessions.
   Negation: Maude’s watch is the only material thing she especially cares for.
5. This goes in the wrong direction. Even if non-materialistic people often have sentimental attachments, that doesn’t tell us whether having a sentimental attachment makes someone materialistic.
   Negation: Non-materialistic people do not tend to have sentimental attachments to things.